Passing Books: A Bout of Books Challenge

Welcome to Bout of Books 5.0! It's the first day, so pace yourself. Shaunesay and I have a challenge for you to get things started. Here are the details:

Congratulations to these winners:

Kimberly posted her response on her blog, On the Wings of Books, saying "After I’ve finished reading (and reviewing) a book it gets put on my finished reading shelf. It’s a nice feeling to be able to put it on that shelf. Occasionally I will loan books (but usually just to certain, trusted, people). And I rarely give books away. I know that’s very selfish of me, but that’s just the way I am. I gave away a ton of books several years ago and I regret doing it, so I don’t usually feel inclined to give them away now."

Melanie says "Most I keep, but some I give away (either to someone I know or via my blog)."

Kat C said, "After I read a book I will either keep it, give it to another blogger or trade it in at the used bookstore."

Tracy is a member of BookCrossing. Her BookCrossing member name is mattnem05.

To enter this challenge, tell us what happens to your books after you have read them. Shaunesay and I both belong to BookCrossing.com, an on-line community where books are given a unique identity so, as the book is passed from reader to reader, it can be tracked, thus connecting its readers. So, we're going to give you an extra chance to win if you're a member of BookCrossing. (And you can join today if you're not already a member.)

Here are the details:

• This challenge will be open for 24 hours, from 12:01 am CDT on Monday the 13th to 12:01 am CDT on Tuesday the 14th
• You must be participating in Bout of Books to win. You must have posted your goals and linked them through the linky on this page.
• Four participants will each win one book up to $15 from The Book Depository.
  
• This is open to entrants in any country that The Book Depository ships to.
• Winner will be selected using Rafflecopter and we’ll announce and contact the winner on Tuesday evening.
• To enter, all you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter widget below. You may answer the question in the widget or post your answer on your blog and supply a link to your answer in the widget. You get an extra entry if you're a member of BookCrossing.
• You can submit your entry on either of our blogs. Rafflecopter ensures that duplicates are not received.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The last day for #SWUR and #OlympicReadathon

It's Sunday and the last day for both Random House of Canada's Olympic Readathon and the Summer Wrap-up Read-a-Thon. (Not to worry, another read-a-thon is starting on Monday morning! Join me in Bout of Books 5.0 the 13th through 19th of August.)

I'm making very good progress toward my goal of 2500 pages during the 17 days of the #OlympicReadathon. When I turned in on Saturday night, I had read 2003 pages. This was a bit behind the pace I had set for myself, but I see no reason why I can't read 500 pages in one day! Today is being spent entirely in the car as we drive from Lancaster, CA, to Richfied, UT. So far, I've already read 196 pages and it's shortly after noon here in Nevada. I finished one book this morning and will definitely finish at least one more before day's end.

In the Summer Wrap-up Read-a-thon, I have now achieved my major goal of reading A Call to Arms by Alan Dean Foster which I finished around 10am. I then picked up Runner at page 118 where I had left off earlier this week. I love having so many books at my fingertips on my Kindle!

In addition to finishing my goal book, I also entered the Laughing Out Loud Challenge sponsored by Montana at The Book Belles. In this challenge, she asked readers to post funny quotes from books which they enjoyed. My response was:

One of the funniest series that I have read is the "Numbers" mysteries by Janet Evanovich starring Stephanie Plum. Finding quotes that are funny in their own right is difficult, though, since the situations and the evolution of the characters contribute so much to the occasional belly-laugh that bursts out when I'm reading. Here are a couple of funny quotes:

"Is that a bulletproof vest? See, now that's so insulting. That's like saying I'm not smart enough to shoot you in the head."

"In my opinion, the only good spider is a dead spider, and women's rights aren't worth dick if they mean I can't ask a man to do my bug squashing."

"There is no such thing as a good call at 7 AM. It's been my experience that all calls between the hours of 11 PM and 9 AM are disaster calls."

Summary

Friday, 8/10
Number of pages I've read today: 111
Number of books completed today: 0

Saturday, 8/11
Number of pages I've read today: 66
Number of books completed today: 0

#SWUR Totals

Saturday, 8/11
Total number of pages I've read: 782
Total number of books completed: 2

#OlympicReadathon Totals

Saturday, 8/11
Total number of pages I've read: 2003
Total number of books completed: 7

Read-a-thon updates

Just 3 more days in both the Summer Wrap-up Read-a-thon and Random House of Canada's Olympic Readathon. On Wednesday, I completed The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear. As I said before, I think this was the very best book in the series so far. I have the next book, A Lesson in Secrets with me and plan to read it next week. But, since I was waiting on my hubby to arrive with the dozen (or so) books I had packed into the car, I started reading Runner by Thomas Perry. I was able to find some time to read during all three meals and thus I wound up having read 149 pages during the day.

On Thursday, I set Runner aside and started reading A Call to Arms by Alan Dean Foster. I had chosen it as my one and only objective/goal for the Summer Wrap-Up Read-a-Thon. Thursday didn't offer as many opportunities to read, and although I thought I had read quite a bit, I was surprised to tally my page count at only 84 pages for the day. I've not had any time to read today (Friday), but since my vacation begins around 13:00 PDT, I'm going to be heads-down in a book for several hours as we travel from Anaheim to Lancaster.

Summary

Wednesday, 8/8
Number of pages I've read today: 149
Number of books completed today: 1

Thursday, 8/9
Number of pages I've read today: 84
Number of books completed today: 0

#SWUR Totals

Wednesday, 8/8
Total number of pages I've read: 521
Total number of books completed: 2

Thursday, 8/9
Total number of pages I've read: 605
Total number of books completed: 2

#OlympicReadathon Totals

Wednesday, 8/8
Total number of pages I've read: 1742
Total number of books completed: 7

Thursday, 8/9
Total number of pages I've read: 1826
Total number of books completed: 7

Bout of Books 5.0: My goals

It's that time. The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 13th and runs through Sunday, August 19th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 5.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

This will be the third time I've participated in Bout of Books. I've labeled all my posts from previous events, so check my Bout of Books tag.

I'm hosting a challenge on Monday, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes. I'll be on vacation during Bout of Books and we will be driving cross-country with frequent side trips. Therefore, I'll be relying on my cellular connectivity more than usual. (I'm hoping that our hotels each night will have Wi-Fi to meet my craving for band width!) I'm thinking that Twitter will be a prime aspect of my Bout of Books experience.

In the past, I've created separate posts each day to talk about what I've been reading, where I am, and progress toward goals. This time, I'm going to try putting all my updates into a single post.

My Bout of Books Goals

My Targets

My only real goal is to spend as much time reading as I can and to have fun!

Time Devoted to Reading

Since I will be on vacation during the entire week of Bout of Books 5.0, I will be reading every day.

Books to Read

I'm lining up a couple of books that have a high likelihood to be read during the week. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. For my trip, I picked about a dozen paperback books and stuck them into the car. An additional 1100 books are currently on my Kindle. These are the books which are appealing to me today.

• A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear - completed 15 Aug
• To Kill a Warlock by H P Mallory - completed 14 Aug
• Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H P Mallory
• The Mezzo Wore Mink by Mark Schweizer - completed 17 Aug
• Timeless by Gail Carriger - completed 15 Aug
• Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich - completed 13 Aug

Olympic Read-a-Thon: Status Update

I think it's time to look at where I am in the Read-a-Thon versus my goal. Due to my terribly busy work schedule (see previous post), I've read only 211 pages during days 10-12 of Random House of Canada's Olympic Readathon. Twelve days into this seventeen day event is 70.6%, and I've read 1693 pages toward my goal of 2500, which is 67.7%. That's not too bad of a discrepancy and I think I can easily reach my goal by the time the closing ceremonies are broadcast on 12 August.

For the past three days, I've been reading the same book—The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear. This is the seventh book in her Maisie Dobbs mystery series, and I think it's the very best one so far. I finished it this morning before breakfast; update to be posted tomorrow. I do have one more of the series on hand which I plan to read next week during Bout of Books 5.0.

In the meantime, I have picked up Runner by Thomas Perry, the sixth book in his Jane Whitefield mystery series which appeared in print 10 years after the previous book. It was a long wait, and I wasn't sure whether there'd ever be another in the series. I read through the first two chapters during breakfast and it literally started of with a bang. I know that I'm going to interrupt the reading of this book this evening when my hubby arrives with the box of books I put into his car. I set completing A Call to Arms by Alan Dean Foster as the one goal for the Summer Wrap-Up Read-a-Thon, and I need to get onto it.

Fortunately, there's one more weekend in both of these read-a-thons. We're starting our summer vacation on Friday afternoon and I expect fewer intrusions into my reading time.

#OlympicReadathon Summary

Sunday, 8/5
Number of pages I've read today: 20
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 1502
Total number of books completed: 6

Monday, 8/6
Number of pages I've read today: 91
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 1593
Total number of books completed: 6

Tuesday, 8/7
Number of pages I've read today: 100
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 1693
Total number of books completed: 6

Summer Wrap-Up, Days 2-4

I'm attending SHARE in Anaheim this week. It's a major event for me with lots of technical training, informal discussions, and—yes—socializing. I've squeezed in time for reading each day, but until today, I've just not had time to update this blog.

Sunday was a total bust when it came to reading. I had conference meetings starting first thing in the morning and going through to early afternoon. I ate a late lunch (or early supper, depending on how you look at it) around 3pm and then took a serious kick-back to relax. I napped, watched some TV, and browsed some of my favorite sites on the Internet. The down side was that by the time I turned in, I had only read 20 pages in The Mapping of Love and Death.

Monday was a bit better. The conference started and I had two presentations to give on Monday afternoon. I spent most of the morning attending sessions and reviewing/refining my own presentations. It was a long day—as are most days at technical conferences. I took my book with me to supper and Maisie Dobbs was my companion as I ate a lovely salad topped with grilled chicken. I would have loved to have kept reading, but I did have quite a bit of e-mail to take care of once I was back in my hotel room. At the end of the day, I had read 91 pages and could see that I was making good progress through the book.

Tuesday was a challenging day since in addition to the conference, I needed to write a technical document and get it mailed out by early afternoon. I was actually late arriving at the conference due to the pressure to get this document pulled together. I did take some time to read sporadically during the day, but the bulk of the reading was in the 45 minutes between when I went to bed and when I fell asleep, dropping the book onto the floor. I had hoped to finish it before midnight, but was simply exhausted.

As I'm writing this update, I have now completed The Mapping of Love and Death and have started reading Runner by Thomas Perry. Yes, I know that's not the book that I set as my only goal for the Read-a-Thon. My sister-in-law's copy of A Call to Arms is currently in Barstow, CA, on its way to me in Anaheim. I'll set aside Runner and start on A Call to Arms as soon as hubby arrives with my books!

#SWUR Summary

Sunday, 8/5
Number of pages I've read today: 20
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 181
Total number of books completed: 0

Monday, 8/6
Number of pages I've read today: 91
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 272
Total number of books completed: 0

Tuesday, 8/7
Number of pages I've read today: 100
Number of books completed today: 0
Total number of pages I've read: 372
Total number of books completed: 0

Reading while in transit

Saturday was the first day of the Summer Wrap-up Read-a-Thon and day nine of Random House of Canada's Olympic Readathon. As this was another travel day for me, I was able to spend much of my "in-transit" time reading. Unlike my travel on Monday, I headed to the airport later in the day and didn't fall asleep in the car. Consequently, I read 57 pages as hubby was driving us down to the airport. (Hmmm... I've just noticed that I essentially was reading at a rate of 1 page per mile.)

I continued reading at the airport while I was waiting to board my flight, and read the last page in Among the Mad shortly before we left the ground in Dallas. I set that book aside and started reading The Mapping of Love and Death, the seventh book in Jacqueline Winspear's mystery series set in England between the two World Wars. Once we were at a decent altitude, I did allow myself to be distracted by the availability of Internet access on the airplane.

#OlympicReadathon Summary

Saturday, 8/4
Number of pages I've read today: 161
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of pages I've read: 1482
Total number of books completed: 6

#SWUR Summary

Saturday, 8/4
Number of pages I've read today: 161
Number of books completed today: 1
Total number of pages I've read: 161
Total number of books completed: 1